Do's
So, you like wearing dresses eh? Getting Started Deciding your archetype, do you want to: * Mash 1 button and call it a day? * Keep track of 12 CD's and snapshot with all you got? * Just look cool while casting? Well look no further, here's some handy tips on how to build no matter what your goal is. # Don't water down the specc by going in too many directions. # Don't listen to strangers online. # Don't ask for help on the discord (https://discord.gg/hEdsWR) without an idea of what you want to achieve. 1 is easily explained. By investing talents enhancing too many aspects of a specc you'll end up lacking in all of them. It's, on Ascension, almost ALWAYS better to focus on one job and do it well. This is especially true for casters. 2 is a lie, listen to me. 3 - What I mean by this is that if you've read these tips you should have a rough idea of how to build, utilize that and make a rough draft before asking for help. You'll have more luck getting help when supplying ppl with your current specc/draft, preferrably linked in the builder. ☀https://project-ascension.com/development/builds#/talentsandabilities/editor/ For the looking cool part.. I say Holy Casters are the coolest. Smiting the Scourge is something we can all get behind right? So let's dive into it: As a caster you will need 17% hit. This means 136 hit rating. -8 rating required for every % hit you gain from talents, RE's, enchants or debuffs on boss. If you run with someone using Faerie Fire, improved in the Balance Druid talent tree (Imp. FF)... well then you're in luck. Or if you are that kind soul. This means you will only need 14% hit, or 112 Rating. If the RE for it is used that's an extra 1% hit chance, dropping you down to 104 rating required. This is doable in ANY tier of gear, and it becomes even easier if we take a look below in the recommended starter talents section and further down under Hit. A solid start for most caster speccs would be to grab these basic talents enhancing your valuable stats (crit, hit, haste and SP). Blessing of the Eternals (BotE), in the Restoration Shaman talent tree. Balance of Power (BoP), in the Balance Druid talent tree. & Enlightened Judgements (EJ), in the Holy Paladin talent tree. These together gives you 8 (EIGHT!) % hit, which leaves you needing only 72 hit rating from gear'','' and 4% spell crit for only 6 TE. Further on we have Mental Quickness (MQ), in the Enhancement Shaman talent tree. This is a pretty big deal for any specc utilizing spells with an even remotely good sp scaling. I will go over this in more detail in the TE 'section. Perceptive readers will have noticed that I didn't list any haste talents. They are in general... generic.. and gives 2% haste / te - not used for all too many dps builds, however haste is still one of our main stats so I thought I'd mention it... These 3 talents: ''BotE, BoP ''& EJ would be baseline for any new caster out there aiming to raid. ''MQ is mentioned more as a side note. MQ is used in plenty, even most speccs but imo can still not be called mandatory. (Neither are the hit talents once you have more gear readily available to you). Hit (again) We've touched on the subject, let's dive deeper and rejoice over our options. As previously stated: you need 17% increased chance to hit to guarantee your spells to land on boss lvl targets. This equals to 132 hit rating, from which you can subtract 8 rating for any % increased chance to hit in talents, RE's, enchants or debuffs on the boss. (8 hit rating = 1% spell hit). You have 2 worthwhile talents to use for this (once again, look above..): BoP and EJ. ''These give you a wooping 8% hit. Leaving you at 9% required from hit rating. Let's say you have that RE'd and improved ''Faerie Fire - You now only need 5% from hit rating. But wait! Let's not forget the ''Balance of Power ''RE, giving you 2% increased chance to hit with your spells! What's this? '''THREE PERCENT from hitcap without any hit rating on our gear!? IT GETS BETTER! 'Now we take a look at what enchants we have available.. You have the of Sight ZG Mage Enchant. Appliable to your head & leg armor. Giving 8 hit rating / enchant. We're now down to '''ONE PERCENT hit required from your gear. This is where you could enchant your boots with 5 hit and call it a day but let's face it: you wan't to be capped, not miss that big nuke when you need it the most. And furthermore, it would actually be HARD not to pick up some hit on your caster gear. Here's the thing though, not only would it be hard to not pick up gear with hit on it - you want to gear for hit because every 16 hit rating on gear let's you drop a hit talent in favour of one increasing your dps. Now, you'll struggle to find a talent that does more for your dps than 2% hit does if you're not capped - but that's not the point. The point is to Maximize your dps, and that means getting the good hit pieces and using the TE to further improve your dmg. Even so: all these talents and enchants.. RE's and debuffs.. They make it very thankful to swap speccs and try new things. Sure it will take it's tax on dmg spending so many TE into hit if you have none on gear but it does give you more freedom. AE Well, we've gone over some basic TE's let's do the same for AE's. For any caster dps, or any dps for that matter, you'll want to use a bow/gun/crossbow rather than a wand. WHAT ABOUT THE SP ON WANDS THEN? Well, wouldn't you rather have some hit rating? BUT I CAN PICK UP TALENTS FOR THAT! Sure you can, but those talents could be spent getting more dmg than a measly 18sp from a wand would. The thing about ranged weapons though, that makes it everyone's first choice is the abilities it lets you use. * Black Arrow ''(Survival Hunter Talent) * ''Auto Shot ''(Marksmanship Hunter Ability)'*''' * Ranged Weapon Specialization ''(Marksman Hunter Talent) *If you're running DW flametongue casting in meleerange while autoattacking is preferable for a patchwerk type of boss. '(rougher positioning due to still needing Black Arrow for max dmg + moving bosses makes it a no-go) Black Arrow ''is '''amazing. '''It's practically a 4% dmg boost for 2AE/1TE. ''Auto Shot - your attacks wind up during channels/casts so when a cast is finished, a projectile will be fired from your weapon, granted the cast/channel wasn't shorter than your ranged attk. speed... You might think this will be a very small boost to your dmg but in a raid you WILL have a decent chunk of ranged AP, coupled with generic buffs to crit, debuffs on boss and general percentual dmg increases my own Auto Shot ''normally lands on 1.5-3% of my dmg done. That's with a blue bow from a 5man dungeon. (But it's not hard for it to do 3% of your dmg if you do low dmg?) - This is during PW fights sitting on 5k+ dps without worldbuffs. Any worldbuff would boost your ''Auto Shot dmg aswell as your normal spells - not as much as your spell dmg but still a decent increase. A ~2% increase for 2AE? That's what we call well spent points. ''Ranged Weapon Specialization ''- At 3/3 this bad boy gives you 5% extra damage. Other '''vital abilities I recommend. * Searing Totem (Elemental Shaman) * Innervate (Balance Druid) * Feign Death ''(Survival Hunter) * ''Inner Fire ''(Discipline Priest) * ''Blink (Arcane Mage) * Divine Shield ''(Protection Paladin) 'or '''Ice Block ''(Frost Mage) * ''Curse of Doom ''(Affliction Warlock) or 'Curse of Elements (Affliction Warlock) * ''Conjure Mana Gem ''(Arcane Mage) * ''Berserker Stance ''(Fury Warrior)*''' * Aspect of the Beast ''(Beast Mastery Hunter) * ''A Tracking spell (Survival Hunter) *Stances don't stack, so if you're gonna play a moonkin or utilize shadowform you will not benefit from picking up Berserker Stance. I'd recommend any caster to pick these up for their AE. Some are dps boosts. Some are defensives utilized to stay alive or mobility used to get where you want quicker thus boost your dps :P * Searing Totem -'' generally about a 4-6% dps increase without any improvements to it. * ''Curse of Doom/Curse of Elements -'' a low time investment for a decent chunk of dmg granted no mechanics stop it from going off - normally stands for atleast 2% of my dmg for 1 GCD every minute - a GCD you might have free due to movement even. HOWEVER, Curse of Elements is a 13% dmg increase for all magic dmg. If no one else is running it... Suck it up, 13% for everyone>2% for you. * ''Berserker Stance - 3% free crit (affects spells aswell). This is a HUGE boost for 2AE, bear in mind it DOES increase your dmg taken though. * Innervate ''- speaks for itself, low time investment for high mana yield. Just beware of the threat it builds on new spawns or a recently pulled boss/mob. * ''Conjure Mana Gem ''- basically an extra mana pot every minute, 3 uses. Also has a legendary RE coupled with it that increases your haste for 8s upon consuming one. ''Life Tap is the go-to for mana really, but it's more GCD's spent so if you can get by in a fight using Innervate, Mana Gems & a Major Mana Potion (and demonic runes as back up) you will do more dps than if you'd use GCD's tapping for mana. * Divine Shield/Ice Block ''- can let you get out of a sticky situation or down right ignore a boss mechanic aswell as just keep yourself safe if healers struggle keeping up. Do note that ''Divine Shield ''is on the GCD while ''Ice Block ''aren't. * ''Blink - same really - ignore boss mechanics or just position yourself quicker to keep on casting at your foes. Also a good survival tool. * Inner Fire - 10sp and some armor for 2ae. The armor is unlikely to help you out if something hits you in a raid but still - the 10sp... well, 10 sp ain't a lot obviously - Free dmg is free dmg though. * Feign Death (FD) - any serious raidgroup won't let you play without this. It is used to: # Manage your threat # Reset fights without having to ress everyone # Skip trash # 'Interrupt' casts at you by making the caster drop you as target A very versatile ability. Bear in mind that it can be resisted. * Aspect of the Beast ''- This increases your AP, thus increases your SP if you run ''Mental Quickness, but the prime reason I'd run this is in case I'm using a Felguard, it's actually a substantial dps increase for only 2AE taking both these factors in consideration. * Tracking - Most of these have received a buff to increase your dmg done to the tracked type by 1%, rather, all but Track Humanoids and Track Hidden but another good reason is to make it possible to use the Improved Tracking RE, increasing your dmg to these types by an additional 2%. I called these 'vital' - in fact you can obviously live without some of them, specifically Aspect of the Beast ''and ''Inner Fire would be the first to drop if you need more utility or buffs for the group. Other abilities that are useful and worth noting, sometimes even worth using over, or in addition, to the ones above. * Fade ''(Shadow Priest) * ''Vanish ''(Subtlety Rogue) * ''Disengage ''(Survival Hunter) * ''Deterrence ''(Survival Hunter) * ''Fade & Vanish - s''imply other threat management tools. ''Fade however also halves stun duration on you if used prior to getting stunned and is a borderline mandatory AE pickup if you're doing AoE encounters or simply do through the roof dps. Using Feign Death during Fade also makes sure that FD cannot get resisted. * Disengage - another mobility tool, this one however is off the GCD and lets you use instant cast abilities during travel. * Deterrence - another defensive, can block boss abilities aimed at you or even let you tank for a short while. Buffs & Companions One hot topic for casters is the value of weapon enhancements. If your specc relies on crits (Fire mage) or simply scales amazingly with it (Conflag, Holy) you might want to get Firestones. Are you just a machine gun with good base dmg and no mana issues, maybe relying on making the most use of your proccs? Maybe Spellstones is your thing, increasing your haste. Do you scale amazingly well with SP? Flametongue ''provides it in spades. All of the above can be improved via TE and RE's and are the most valuable when you dualwield. (Twice the weapons, twice the bonus). If you lack AE or TE to improve these you could just aswell pop on Brilliant Wizard Oil on your weapon(s) and get some free stats from that. As a base for your caster I normally recommend to get the following. * ''Felguard ''(Demonology Warlock) * ''Focus Magic ''(Arcane Mage) * ''Arcane Power ''(Arcane Mage) * ''Power Infusion ''(Discipline Priest) * ''Hunger for Blood ''(Assassination Rogue) * ''Black Arrow ''(Survival Hunter) * Any weapon enhancement ''Felguard ''(2AE1TE +2AE for ''Drain Soul) ''- A demonic guardian that deals a decent chunk of dmg and can also be used as a source for additional SP via ''Demonic Knowledge (DK) in the Demonology Warlock tree. By itself it will probably do anywhere between 5-12% of your dmg. A good investment even if you don't use Drain Soul ''for anything but the demon or pick up ''DK. Focus Magic ''(2AE1TE) ''- ''This is a flat 6% crit when traded/chained in normal raid scenarios. ''Arcane Power & Power Infusion ''(2AE1TE each) ''- ''Damage cooldowns are an overall dps increase and I recommend you to have atleast '''two' that can be used together, further increasing their value. (Damage % increasing abilities like these don't stack, neither do haste increasing abilities). Further explained in Cooldown Usage. Hunger for Blood (3AE1TE)- Flat 5% dmg, you SHOULD have this, and you SHOULD have someone in the group applying a bleed, even if it has to be the tank. Black Arrow ''(2AE1TE) - As we stated above in this article, one of the main reasons you want a ranged weapon over a wand. Solid 4% average dmg buff. Further increasing in value used in tandem with other damage increasing cooldowns or debuffs on bosses. ''Weapon enhancements - No matter which you chose/which are best for your specc - you lose dps by not having one. These are generic tips, a fire caster might use an Imp as a companion for the paths that opens up in TE use, further increasing fire dmg and fire crit - even synergizing with your pet granting it, and it granting you: CRIT! - A shadow caster might want to use a Succubus for increased shadow dmg/crit. TE Basic, dmg increasing TE's not already covered above - and MQ in more detail. Generally speaking for all dps you want to stay clear of talents that give you 1% increases / TE spent, they're considered weak and it's pretty self explanatory when you have talents that offer so much more. Talents will ofc depend alot on your specc but I will list some generic ones to begin with * Ranged Weapon Specialization ''(Marksmanship Hunter) * ''Totem of Wrath (Elemental Shaman) * Elemental Oath (Elemental Focus) ''(Elemental Shaman) * ''Master Conjuror/Elemental Weapons ''(Demonology Warlock/Enhancement Shaman) * ''Arcane Potency (with Arcane Concentration) ''(Arcane Mage) ''Ranged Weapon Specialization '' - this is in effect as long as you wield a ranged weapon. 1/3 TE gives you 1%, 2/3 gives 3% and then the 3/3 is 5% total making it a 1.67% dmg increase / te. Keep in mind this is your personal dmg that's increased, not the one of your pets so it will actually be a bit lower. Not a bad talent, not the best. ''Totem of Wrath ''(2AE1TE) - This will take up your fire totem slot, lowering your dmg since you won't be having a searing totem. I'd recommend a raidgroup to get their HEALERS to pick one up between them. But if they for some reason can't find room and you run multiple casters? Then you should jump on that grenade and grab it. The gain for the group is way too high not to have one: 50sp and 3% extra crit on boss.. ''Elemental Oath ''- 5% spell crit to the raid! If no1 else has it (or moonkin aura) you want it. If you run an elemental specc (fire/nature/frost) this will be picked up even if the raid already has it since you'll use it together with ''Elemental Focus (1AE1TE). ''While ''Clearcasting from Elemental Focus is active you get a 10% damage boost to elemental sources. Arcane Potency -'' This is an added effect to your ''Clearcasting, giving you a 30% (2/2TE) increased chance to crit with your next spell. Arcane Concentration ''is a 10% chance to procc (3/3TE) giving you a measly average of 3% crit for FIVE points spent.. '''Don't stop reading'. However the Spellslinger legendary RE counts as mage Clearcasting ''and will procc the ''Arcane Potency effect increasing the value significantly (has around a 20% procc rate on average in my specc - decided by ICD aswell ofc). That would put it, without the actual Arcane Concentration talent at a 6% crit bonus on average for 2 TE, or 3% / TE if you would. Not every specc will care for this as it requires you to use the Spellslinger legendary RE but I feel it's worth mentioning. It's also useful for snapshotting with dots that hold their dmg/haste/crit values from application when refreshed via sources utilized in those speccs. (Everlasting Affliction ''& ''Pain and Suffering) Master Conjuror/Elemental Weapons ''- If you're using these weapon enhancements you're '''most often' well off improving them to their fullest potential (for dualwielding). Increasing their effect by 190% respectively 126%. 3xRE+3xTE Other damage increasing talents. * Sanctified Retribution ''(Retribution Paladin) * ''Swift Retribution ''(Retribution Paladin) * ''Arcane Empowerment ''(Arcane Mage) ''Sanctified Retribution (1AE1TE (with aura 3AE/1TE)) - a 3% dmg increase to anyone affected by one of your auras. - Strong group buff and worthwhile picking up for the raid if no1 else does. Swift Retribution - ''3% raidwide haste. For 3TE, it's a high price but to min max someone's gotta pay it (not you!) ''Arcane Empowerment ''- another 3% dmg increase to the raid, however this time for 3TE. Expensive but once again... you gotta do what you gotta do (but not ''you) to flex that dps. Let's have a quick chat about how you would chose other talents. We've already said that 1% increase / TE are weak. You understand that. This is applicable to any % dmg enhances to your used abilities aswell. If you have 8 dmg sources in your specc and you have the option to improve one of those by 5%, does that make it a worthwhile investment? That would depend on how big part of your dmg it actually is ofc! It's pretty straight foward in a 1-2 button specc like Elemental Shamans, Holy Casters, Fire Mages and such. - You will easily discern which talents give you more bang for your buck. (not taking into consideration the fact that you also have to compare those dmg increasing talents with crit increasing ones and so on, and so forth :clown:) A generic 2% Shadow dmg will however probably outwheigh a 3-4 or even 5% increase to an individual ability for a DoT build. How many of your abilities can crit? What is your Crit modifier? Would you benefit more from 2% haste than 2% dmg or crit in your build? It will always depend on your specc and not be the same for everyone. Haste is an amazing stat, it lowers GCD's, it increases your dmg by a flat %, it can heighten your procc uptimes, it makes the world seem less grey. But it's a double edged sword because it also drains your mana quicker... As promised, more details on MQ which I've adviced you to pick up, or atleast consider for your caster: In a raidsetting this baby will grant you (STR stacked) roughly 140 spellpower, or ~27SP/TE. More if you have TE enough to run conversions like Mental Dexterity (MD), also in Enhancement Shaman tree - Boosting your AP by 100% of your intellect. (Not recommended til later gear levels/very good scaling spells.. or simply for speccs not too TE heavy) At high gear levels you will easily sit on over 400 int without stacking int or picking up stat % boosting talents or RE's, giving you an additional 20+ sp per TE spent in Mental Dexterity. ''(Putting it on par with ''Demonic Knowledge ''in the Demonology Warlock tree) It's simply pretty hard to beat the SP gain from ''MQ, especially on earlier gear levels where SP ain't as high. The reason we stack STR over INT here is that the STR (with MQ) will give you an additional ~52SP in a raid. The INT allocation would get you some mana and 1.5% crit (granted you already ran 63 points in INT) and obviously open up choices to scale with INT instead. If you're running with INT allocation bear in mind that MQ might no longer be a worthwhile investment for you as the value drops from ~27SP/TE to ~20SP/TE (granted you still use 63 points in STR). You could very well now be better off investing TE in crit/haste/hit (to open up gear choices) or % dmg increases. Now, if you favour crit in your specc this is definetly not as easy of a choice and will heavily depend on your gear, available RE's and group composition aswell. Now, I know this isn't what you want to hear but sometimes you want to spend TE on stuff not increasing your damage! I'll give you a few examples here that can help you when the raid struggles to stay alive. * Enveloping Shadows (Subtlety Rogue) * Cheat Death/Ardent Defender ''(Subtlety Rogue/Protection Paladin) * ''Nether Protection ''(Destruction Warlock) * ''Balance of Power ''(Balance Druid) * ''Soul Link ''(Demonology Warlock) ''Enveloping Shadows - Reduces AoE damage taken by 10% / TE Cheat Death/Ardent Defender - Both blocks a hit that would otherwise have killed you and has a 120s cooldown, essentially a free pass to fail or just tank a mechanic dealing it's damage in one hit. Cheat Death grants you 50% damage reduction for 3s after taking that not-so-killing blow where as Ardent Defender ''reduces damage taken while below 35% hp by 10% '''always'(at 3/3). These are both 3TE talents, increasing the likelihood of proccing with each TE. (33% / TE) Nether Protection - A procc effect after taking damage from a spell effect to reduce damage taken from that school of magic by 20% for the next 8s. Procc chance increases with TE spent. (10% / TE) Balance of Power - YES! This both provides you with a 2% increased chance to hit AND a 3% reduced spell damage taken / TE! Soul Link (2AE1TE) - Available if using any warlock summon except for Imp. This shares the dmg you take with your summoned demon - unimproved it reduces your damage taken by 6% and instead directs that damage to your pet. It can be improved via Demonic Embrace in the Demonology Warlock tree for another 2%/TE - On this point I'd also like to mention the talent Master Demonologist also in the Demonology Warlock tree, which has a different effect depending on which demon you control, most noticable in this case would be the ones while controlling a Felhunter or a Felguard (as you wouldn't normally run a Voidwalker as dps: * Controlling a Felhunter gives you a 2% reduction to spell damage taken / TE * Controlling a Felguard Gives you a 1% reduction to damage taken and a 1% increase to damage done / TE. This is a 5p talent so it can provide a decent additional source for damage reduction if you really ache for it. Cooldown Usage Now we're getting into a bit of gameplay! Some basic rules of CD usage * Don't miss out on using them* * Don't waste their uptime** * Use as much as you can at once * Save for opportune moments* *this is somewhat contradictory but in truth belongs to the 'basics'. So. Having CD's isn't a dps increase if you don't use them right? Correct. However using them at the wrong time will diminish their value greatly. Popping Black Arrow, a trinket/racial, Arcane Power and Power Infusion all to just have to run 15 yards to get out of fire won't do you much good. Or to have them all expire just as the boss enters a weakened state taking more dmg. **this is partially about planned movement as in the example above, but also about correct order of using your cooldowns. Using 20s duration cooldowns you don't want to spend any of that time refreshing buffs/debuffs that isn't affected by the increases. Basic CD usage: * Make sure Hunger for Blood will last through the cooldowns used. * Apply Black Arrow before popping cooldowns (Yes it will get increased dmg but nowhere near enough to make up for the lost GCD) - AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE IT UP BEFORE CD's. * Use as many as you can stack at once. Every CD further increases the value of the other ones. * Don't overlap/overwrite CD's. It's basically about optimizing your time spent casting while CD's are active. And not overwriting CD's is a no-brainer but be careful with that button mashing or you just might accidentally use a Power Infusion at the same time as an Icy Veins or something. This brings us to the next points: MORE CD's! Having Arcane Power and Power Infusion is pretty standard, you will have them up every 2 minutes to use together, also combined with racials or trinkets that hold a similar CD. What's to say you won't run 2 trinkets? (or simply one on-use trinket and your racial) Why not Combine the next trinket/racial use with say... Icy Veins ''(Frost Mage) or ''Elemental Mastery ''(Elemental Shaman). I advice most ppl to macro abilities with the same cooldown together to ensure you keep them used together. However there are trinkets with longer cooldowns but greater effect that could be used together with others on lower cooldown to increase their value. It boils down to fight lengths in many of these scenarios. Being able to get 330 haste from a trinket instead of 175sp, or 200 haste will ofc boost your ''Arcane Power value more, but if it offsets your cooldown use it might end up giving less overall dps by not being able to use your cooldowns in tandem for the next time they (well, some of them) are ready. Practice makes perfect. Make sure you macro those CD's as you feel comfortable using them - one button press or a double tap is quicker than pressing 3-4 - I don't care how quick or good at fingering you think you are.. As a note I'll add the Legendary RE Infused Gems to this part, also mentioned below under RE's. This acts as a pseudo cooldown, granting you 25% spellhaste for 8s when using a Mana gem created by the mage ability Conjure Mana Gems. As Mana gems holds a 60s cd you can use this together with most of your other big cooldowns. RE's Here we go again, it's individual from specc to specc, player to player - yaddayadda. There are however some that most speccs will utilize and I'll list them below (some might not be for every player, but I don't really know any specc that wouldn't run them) * Balance of Power - 2% inc to hit * One-Handed Weapon Specialization - 2% inc dmg * Improved Tracking - 2% inc dmg (applicable where you have those mob types) * Playing With Fire - 2% inc dmg done, 2% inc dmg taken After this it's dependant on your specc. Some will run a generic Legendary RE like S''pellslinger/Stormbringer/Harbinger of flame/Infused Gem''s (depending on if they benefit from/use Arcane Potency ''or simply scale better with either damage type) or they'll use a specc specific RE that increases one of their used abilities impact. As a caster in general you'll be looking for RE's that does any of the following. * Increases your damage, haste, chance to crit or hit in general. * Increases the damage or critical strike chance of your main abilities. * Proccs that give a temporary increase in your stats or deals damage to your target. * Lowers cooldowns. * Enhances synergies. These are what will have a direct effect on your output but you can also look for utility RE's, some examples to follow. * Reduced mana costs. * Reduced damage taken. * Movement speed. These are obviously highly circumstantial and will in any normal scenario not really be used as more than a filler RE. (A filler RE is a second tier RE, one that doesn't increase your dmg as much as the ''good ones available to you). Out of these the reduced mana cost is the one that tends to have a direct impact on your dmg done as it will reduce GCD's spent on getting mana back via Life Tap or simply let's you go longer before running out of mana. Some bossfights will have heavy AoE dmg going out and reducing this will help the raid as a whole to survive by lowering the healing requirements. Stay alive - do more damage. Movement speed - the old Pursuit of Justice RE was nerfed and no longer gives you passive run speed but we still have proccs like Blazing Speed that gives you a chance for increased movement speed after being hit - useful for kiting scenarios. (where you're not oneshot by whatever's chasing you) We can make a long list of RE's that are useful in one way or another but I will keep this short, just to point out that damage isn't always the only goal you have. ABC - Always Be Casting This is the law for casters. A melee can sit and wait on a cd whilst auto attacking or pooling resources for abilities. A caster however should ALWAYS be channeling a spell or you're missing out on dmg. If you have to move, refresh a debuff/buff/totem, but beware to not be on the GCD when you stop moving to not disrupt your ABC. It's as if a rogue or warrior would sit at 100/100 Rage or Energy and not use their abilities. That's it really, this entails planned movement ahead of mechanics or boss movement so that you can refresh or apply instants while moving without overlapping them or to keep range for adds spawning or boss to not get that oh so infuriating 'out of range' just as you're finishing your cast. Consumables As the title says: What can we consume to boost our damage or survivability further? Flask of Supreme Power Clamlette Magnifique I'm not gonna add the weapon imbues (Firestone ''or ''Spellstone) to this as they're abilities, Brilliant Wizard Oil however is an outside source and I'd keep that here so: Brilliant Wizard Oil I mean, that's really it when it comes to dmg, those are the ones you want. You could argue, for crit based speccs, to use Greater Arcane Elixir and an Int elixir. For survival we'd use Gordok Green Grog (10 stam) from Dire Maul: North on top of this, and currently Greater Mark of the Dawn (30 stam), to get ourselves another 40 stam. Boss specific consumables would be any of the Protection potions that absorbs dmg of an element or the resistance potion that increases all resistances by 50 for 3 minutes. (pre pot to get double uses in a fight) Gearing Again, statwheights varies depending on specc... Some want more crit, some want more sp. Some value haste (limited in supply), some value TE's more so that they want more hit on gear than others. MOSTLY you'll want as much hit as humanly possible to come from your gear as the TE normally boosts your dmg more than swapping 2 items with hit for 2 items without hit but more SP. The trade off is rarely worth it. As we've been through the whole MQ and STR stacking debacle above I'm gonna point out that you will NOT be using STR gear for your caster just because you run a AP->SP conversion. # Get a ranged weapon. (incidentally it's easy to pick up hit or crit on them) # If you're not weapon swapping - dualwield. (more value from weapon enhancements/enchants) # Never use a staff unless it's leaps and bounds better than your other options stat wise. (losing an RE and/or an application of weapon enhancement/enchant) # Make sure you atleast OWN a on-use trinket for fights requiring burst. As we have a transmog system in place on Ascension you don't have to worry about looks of what you EQ either! ;) This is what you want! Author: Turncoat/Alternate